Erlend Oye is back with a new solo project following the Kings of Convenience homecoming of 2021. One can hear echoes of the aristocratic tranquility of the Norwegian duo’s last record of in the soothing, breathable music of La Comitiva, as well as influences from musica leggera and Sicilian folk (which Oye seems enamored with since moving to Italy in 2013), plus flamenco phrasings, bolero intonations, and the occasional bouncy rhythms of calypso and range-restrained quick-strumming of samba.
Author: Justin Gage
George Cromarty :: The Wind In The Heather
1984’s The Wind in the Heather finds Cromarty evolving from folk-blues purist to a cosmopolitan songcrafter fully aware of the environment in which he created. From the outset, the listener finds that Cromarty is still a powerhouse of the alternating thumbed bassline though he has picked up some new tricks. Incorporating flamenco style strumming, quick runs of clusterchorded breakdowns, and, importantly, that ever elusive idea of ‘space’ within the composition expand his sound beyond the decades-old template dictating the cornerstones of Guitar Soli.
Dorothy Carter :: Troubadour
Dorothy Carter began her musical career in the avant-garde and ended up an early music revivalist/popularizer. In between these two poles, she made two records that fittingly reside somewhere in the middle. For her first solo album, Troubadour, originally released in 1976 on her own label and now reissued by Drag City, she explored more traditional zones, evoking and interpreting gnostic hymns, ancient airs and cosmic carols with fidelity and freshness.
Setting :: At Eulogy
With just one studio album, and now two live releases under their belt, North Carolina’s Setting trio of Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly and Joe Westerlund is rapidly becoming one of the most rewarding improvisational outfits on the American music scene. This new one, from a June 2024 show in Asheville, showcases Setting as some kind of postminimalist jam band–all driving rhythms and humongous, multicolored drones.
Dummy :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
What if Dummy made an electronic album with rock instruments? What exactly would that sound like? The result is Free Energy, a driving blast of dance floor physicality. We caught up with all four members of the band to discuss this sonic transformation and what’s next. Said, guitarist Joe Trainor, “We tapped into some things that I feel like we’re just scratching the surface of, in terms of what we could do in the future.”
Krononaut :: Krononaut II
While their 2020 debut featured a clutch of out jazz ringers from both Europe and the US on a set of fourth world excursions, the new Krononaut album pares down to the core duo of guitarist Leo Abrahams and drummer Martin France. The results, a series of evolving conversations between Abrahams’s chiming guitar peals and France’s restless free jazz rustle, are nothing short of sublime.
Maxton Hunter :: Dhara / Jaya
In need of some sitar radiance as the crispness of the weather slowly begins to turn? Single “Dhara / Jaya” comes via California-based musician and studio maestro Maxton Hunter, a lifting mini-suite that floats into the ether with a hovering quality of west coast ambiance.
The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)
Via satellite, transmitting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W
Misha Panfilov Septet :: To The Mesosphere And Beyond
From the aeronautical title to the space chants and exotica flourishes, the irrepressible Estonia-born, Portugal-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Misha Panfilov has made To The Mesosphere and Beyond a winning and winding homage to early Sun Ra.
Aquarium Drunkard Book Club :: Chapter 30
Welcome back to the stacks. It’s Aquarium Drunkard’s Book Club, our monthly gathering of recent (or not so recent) recommended reading. In this month’s stack: a PSA regarding the free audiobook app, Libby, John Higgs’ recently reissued tome on iconoclasts The KLF, Robyn Hitchcock’s recent coming-of-age memoir, and Chuco Punk, a look into the El Paso, TX DIY punk scene.
Aerial M :: The Peel Sessions
From the netherworld of Drag City comes Aerial M: The Peel Sessions, a monumental slab transmitted by David Pajo and recorded for Peely & Co back in 1998. It’s an unlikely and essential document of a previously undisclosed chapter of Pajo’s musical history. For those who ransack the guitarist’s catalog seeking that elusive post-Slint high – a full band treatment of ominous, thundering post-rock – here’s your fix.
Sandy Bull :: Still Valentine’s Day 1969
Nowhere is Bull’s stage prowess on better display than Still Valentine’s Day 1969, one of scant live recordings of Bull in full flight, finally available on vinyl from No Quarter almost 20 years after it was first unearthed. Recorded before a small crowd at The Matrix—a regular haunt of Jerry Garcia, Jefferson Airplane, Hunter S. Thompson, and even the Velvet Underground— Still Valentine’s Day 1969 plunges listeners into the echoing caverns of Bull’s imagination.
Nala Sinephro :: Endlessness
Nala Sinephro is back with a new album on Warp Records, following her acclaimed ambient jazz debut Space 1.8, from 2021. A multi-instrumentalist virtuoso, Sinephro composed, produced, arranged and engineered the whole record from scratch evoking Pharoah Sanders’ spiritual jazz and Jon Hassell’s hypnotic electronica.
Slippers :: So You Like Slippers?
Like the moving frames in one of the artist’s films, So You Like Slippers? comes at you in cozy slices of guitar pop that rarely exceed two minutes. Slippers is the solo project of Los Angeles-based musician Madeline Babuka Black, also the drummer in French pop outfit Le Pain.
Ryuichi Sakamoto :: Coda (1983)
Reissue label Wewantsounds just announced a remastered, worldwide release of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Coda, also known as the solo piano version of the 1983 soundtrack to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence plus two bonus tracks based on atmospheric synth pad lines. Acoustically reinterpreted, the multi-award winning and seemingly-grand compositions from the soundtrack are undressed, showcasing Sakamoto’s fundamental skills as an instrumentalist and arranger.